Improvement in bomb-lances



I. GOODSPEED.

Bomb Lance.

Patented Aug. 9, 1859.

fig- 2,

ave-um,

N-PETERS, PHOTO-UTHOGRAPNER. WASHINGTONv D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT CFFIcEO ISAAC GOODSPEED, OF NORWICH, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND GEO. A. MANSFIELD.

IMPROVEMENT IN BOMB-LANCES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 25,080, dated August 9, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ISAAC GooDsPEEn, of Norwich, New London county, Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Projectiles; and I do hereby declare that the following description, ,with the accompanying drawings, forms afull, clear, and exact specification thereof.

My chief improvement is in the manner of constructing and operating the wings for guiding the projectile in a direct line through the air, and is principally intended for bombprojectiles to be used in the whale-fishery, but is adapted to all arrow-like projectiles intended to be projected from fire-arms.

The accompanying drawings represent my improvement.

Similar letters represent similar parts in all the views.

Figure l is a side elevation of the projectile as it appears in passing through the air. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section. Fig. 3 is a cross-section on line A B, enlarged.

a represents the shell of the projectile, which is filled with gunpowder, which is exploded by a fuse, b. It will be observed that the rear part of this shell or case, for a considerable part of its length, is pierced by three long apertures or slots, 0, cut at right angles with the axis of the machine, in which the guiding-wings are set, and out of which they expand.

61 represents the guiding-wings, of brass or some thin stiff material, hung on an axis at e.

f represents another piece of thin metal, which serves as a lever for throwing out the wings, and also, by means of the pin and slot at g, regulates the extent of their expansion.

h represents the spring which expands the wings after leaving the gun. It is here represented as applied to the lever f,- but I sometimes apply it directly to the wings.

In all other projectiles with expanding wings with which I am acquainted the shell or case is a continuous cylinder throughout, and the wings, which have been made of various materials, fold down onto the outside of the cylinder while within the barrel of the gun, and are expanded by various devices, or by the action of the air after leaving the gun. Their imperfection is that the wings are not practically sure to be thrown into or assume a position perfectly radial to the axis of the projectile, and thus control its passage through the air the most perfectly, whereas in my machine the slots or grooves in which the wings are set being constructed on true radial lines, the wings expand perfectly in such direction.

So far my invention is intended to give the most perfect direct action to the projectile through the air, excluding the rifle or rotary principle, to avail myself of which principle, however, when desired, I dispense with the radial slots 0 c c, and apply my improved expansive wings to the exterior surfaces of a triangular prismatic shank, i, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, Fig. 4 being a side elevation of the shank or rear part of the projectile, and Fig. 5 a cross-section on line C D.

It will be clearly apparent to any person acquainted with the principles of the motion of bodies .in fluids that the angular position which the wings assume in this modification of my invention is such as to give a rotary or rifle motion to the projectile, while at the same time the precise and uniform angle of the expansion of the wings, which is so essential to the directness of the aim, is strictly regulated and controlled by the principle of con struction.

Another improvement which I have made is specially applicable to bomb-projectiles; and it consists in isolating the fuse or slowmatch, which communicates with the powderchamber of the bomb, in a casing or surrounding of gilders cement, which answers the double purpose of protecting the fuse from moisture, and also effectually cuts off exterior communication and prevents the explosion of the contents of the powder-chamber of the bomb upon the discharge of the gun, and until the fuse shall have duly performed its appropriate office of a slow-match.

Having thus described my improvements,

what I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The compound wing herein described,

consisting of the wing proper, d, the level f,

as to expand in coincident p1ncs, ubstm1- tially in the manner and for the purposes set forth.

ISAAC GOODSPEED. Witnesses:

LUTHER BRIGGS, J r., ANDREW B. HOWLAND. 

